The invention relates to machines for making rods of the tobacco processing industry, such as cigarette rods, cigar rods, cigarillo rods and filter rods. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus which are used to separate the (frequently defective) leader from the next-following portion of a rod which contains a filler of tobacco or filter material and a tubular wrapper around the filler.
When a rod making machine (such as a machine which is used to make a continuous filter rod or a continuous cigarette rod) is started, the quality of the front end portion or leader of the rod is normally (or frequently) unsatisfactory for conversion into acceptable rod-shaped articles (e.g., into filter rod sections or plain cigarettes of unit length or multiple unit length). Therefore, the leader of the rod is normally severed from the next-following portion in the space between the wrapping mechanism (wherein the filler is draped into a web of cigarette paper or the like) and the so-called cutoff wherein the rod is subdivided into sections of desired length. The term "leader" denotes that length of the front end portion of a rod which is, or is expected to be, unsatisfactory for subdivision into acceptable rod-shaped articles
It was customary to deflect the leader of a tobacco- or filter material containing rod into a receptacle and to break or sever the rod behind the leader. Such work was carried out by an attendant.
Recent types of rod making machines are equipped with apparatus for separating the leader from the next-following portion of the rod. Reference may be had to commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,051 to Steiniger which discloses an apparatus having shears movable with the rod behind the leader and a cam serving as a means for moving one blade of the shears with reference to the other blade so that the rod is automatically severed behind the defective front end portion. The patented apparatus takes up a relatively large amount of space because the shears must be free to move along the path for the rod.